Yesterday I published a post on the topic of vertical impact loading rate in running – sounds like a complex topic, but in reality it simply represents how quickly you impact the ground when you run. The topic has gained a lot of interest among scientists lately as recent research has suggested that higher loading […]
Vertical Impact Loading Rate in Running: Post #2 from Jay Dicharry of the UVA Speed Lab
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Vertical Impact Loading Rate in Running: Linkages to Running Injury Risk
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Last week I wrote a recap of the course I recently attended on the prevention and treatment of running injuries. In that post I mentioned that the topic of impact loading rate has gained a lot of interest lately in terms of it’s potential relationship to injury risk in runners. In the comments that followed […]
Gait Retraining and the Treatment of Running Injuries
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Image by SashaW via Flickr In my previous post I summarized a slice of what was covered at a three-day course called “New Trends in the Prevention of Running Injuries” that I attended last weekend in West Virginia. In addition to discussing what we do and do not know about the causes of running injuries, […]
New Trends in the Prevention and Treatment of Running Injury, and a Healthy Dose of Natural Running
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Every once in awhile in life you get the feeling that you are part of something big. Something that might really make a difference beyond just the small pool of people that you interact with on a regular basis. That was how I felt as I sat in a darkened conference room at the National […]
Shepherdstown, West Virginia: A Natural Running Community
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I spent this past weekend at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WV, a small town tucked along the Potomac River near the border with Maryland. Though I have spent time in West Virginia in the past, I’d never been to Shepherdstown, and thus knew very little about it. My reason for traveling to […]
Attending a Running Injury Conference in Sheperdstown, WV
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Why runners get hurt is a question that occupies my mind almost constantly. It’s amazing that so simple an activity can cause so many problems for so many people – for example, the scientific literature reports injury rates ranging from about 20-75% of runners in studies that have been conducted to date. In my quest […]
On the Limitations of Science in the Study of Running
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Image via Wikipedia As runners, we often want concrete, black and white answers to questions about things like shoe design, running form, training methods, and so on. Does running in a minimal shoe make you less prone to injury than running in a traditionally cushioned, heel-lifted shoe? Does switching form to a midfoot strike make […]
Proper Shoes for Kids: Thoughts From a Family Doctor
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A few months ago I published an interview I conducted with Dr. Mark Cucuzzella. Mark is a family physician at Harpers Ferry Family Medicine in WV, an Associate Professor at West Virginia University School of Medicine, and the owner of Two Rivers (TR) Treads, the nation’s first minimalist-only running store. Like me, Mark has a […]
Forefoot Striking and Pronation: Insight from an Ultrarunning Podiatry Student
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Image from the Runner’s World Wiki Just before Christmas I received a very thoughtful and well researched email from ultrarunner Phil Shaw. In addition to being a very successful long distance runner, Phil is also pursuing a doctoral degree in podiatric medicine – quite a dangerous combination! Like me, Phil feels that the current paradigm […]
Interesting Article on Orthotics by Gina Kolata in the New York Times
Image via CrunchBaseReporter Gina Kolata published an excellent article today in the New York Times that discusses what we do and do not know about how custom orthotics work. She interviewed renowned running biomechanists Benno Nigg (University of Calgary) and Joesph Hamill (University of Massachusetts), as well as several orthotic makers. Here are a few […]